The Single Girl

I am a single girl and while it does have its let downs occasionally I can't say I all together hate it. I love that I can just up and decide to go on a trip somewhere and don't have to check in with anyone. I love that I don't have to argue with someone about helping with the domestic chores. I can leave work and meet up with some co-workers or friends for a drink and again...no checking in or asking them to tag along. I can be as candid as I want about the dating world and do not have to worry about offending anyone. I am a happily, single girl! So why do people not believe me?

When I talk about my summer plans I bring up the fact that I am a bridesmaid in two weddings. I then get asked if I have kids? Nope! Married? Nope? Boyfriend? Nope! Then I get the look, and I know you know which look I am talking about. This comes from my family and friends of the family. When I see the look I give a huge, inward sigh because I know what's coming next.

Subject lines: biological clock, level at which my standards are, body images, mustn't be so picky...

It is time consuming, emotionally draining, and just plain frustrating. Just because I am single does not mean I am miserable!

I have been talking with my friends about this recently, trying to gain some insight and this is what we've come up with:

1) Our generation just doesn't make sense to them with regards to dating. Very few in my family have gone to college and have a career, especially the girls in our family. It is expected that I should have multiple children by this time in my life because, hey, they have. Things are a little different now. It takes time to go to school and establish a career, so I don't know what to tell you!

2) Guys are not aging accordingly! I swear to you they do not mature in the right direction, they are getting younger. I almost have to pull an Anna Nicole just to get a guy who is mature enough to be out of his mother's basement, can tell me any current even, has a job, doesn't have at least four baby-mamas, and doesn't have permanent damage to the thumb joint from excessive "gaming."

3) The "good ones" don't get thrown back. The sea of guys is thinning out because when a girl has found a keeper she doesn't cut him loose and hope for something better. We've been screwed over enough times in the dating world that when we see that glimmer of hope and possibility we turn into steel bear traps.

4) The media has ruined us! We grew up watching the Disney movies, reading Nicholas Sparks, and watching the Victoria's Secret models strut their stuff. So we are hopeful that someday our prince will come, we will find that someone who says to us "I want to do this because I want you. I want all of you, forever, you and me, everyday!" And we even think we have to look like those 15 feet tall, stick thin, freakishly pretty girls walking down that catwalk in order to get one of the good guys. Then to make matters worse Fifty Shades of Grey comes out.

So now I have to be 15 feet tall, stick thin, freakishly pretty, have the ability to balance on 6 foot tall stilettos, have a large dowry that only my father the King could provide, and have the ability to hold my own in the "red room of pain." And lets face it Nicholas Sparks is a one of a kind, that guy just doesn't exist. Unfortunately, guys just don't speak like that anymore.

I am 5'2'', curvy, will break my ankle just looking at the shoes those models wear, have to work for a living, and some of the things that go on in the "red room of pain" freaks me out a little. You can't really explain these things to your Great Aunt Ida and telling your mom to either throw out the biological clock so she doesn't hear it anymore or adopt another child seems a bit disrespectful so here I am; the single girl!